The Al-shabaab militants paraded in Jilib town of Jubbaland the bodies of Kenyan officers killed and weapons captured in the assault on Hamey police camp, Garissa, in the Northeastern Province of Kenya last Thursday.
The pictures look like over-milked images of two or three dead officers and their gear. But clear in the pictures is a police vehicle captures carrying the number plate GKA 398Y that the militants say was part of the Ghanima (war bounty) that fell in their hands during the attack.
The report by Radio Andalus, a stationed affiliated to the Al-Qaeda-linked group, said an assortment of weapons and combat gear was also captured: automatic guns, hand grenades, uniforms, helmets, etc.
The public square display of corpses and weapons in Jilib was neither impressive nor earth-shaking in numbers or range, but the objective, which did not escape the observers, was to drive home a show of force and an undeniable defeat to Somalia army, AMISOM and the Jubbaland administration since it happened in a major town in broad daylight. This fact in itself is alarming as it abrogates the claims of Mogadishu on its war campaign against the Islamist fighters.
The public show on the part of Al-Shabaab was clearly intended to remind beholders, too, of the devastating attack on El Adde KDF camp Gedo, Jubbaland, on January 15, 2016.
